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Month: June 2006

Those world champion religious fundamentalists are at it again. Texan Leo Canales jr is spearheading a movement to change the commonly accepted English-language greeting of ‘Hello’.

You see, Leo is concerned that every time we greet someone we utter that most heinous of words – hell. Oh, the humanity! So Leo has suggested that we replace this Satan-worshipping word with a new universal greeting. In some of the worst word abuse I’ve seen in a long time, Leo is doing all he can to promote his own suggested new greeting of ‘Heaveno’. No, seriously, he really does think we should all say that. If you have trouble believing me, just check out the website heaveno.com.

Leo Canales jr (pic from heaveno.com)

Leo believes many of society’s ills can be blamed on the unconscious use of the word “hell”. He says, “We promote a negative attitude every time we greet someone. Maybe it affects the way we behave to each other.” (from heaveno.com.)

Maybe Leo should consider that not everyone believes in hell. And not everyone that does believe in hell considers it a problem that those four letters, in that order, appearing as part of another word, are the cause of many of societies ills. I would suggest that plain stupidity is the cause of most of the ills of society, no matter how you greet people.

If Leo has that much of an issue with ‘hello’, why try to force his own beliefs on everyone with such a ridiculous new word? A word that he says promotes “a more harmonious, intelligent and positive new universal greeting… A symbol of Peace, friendship and Welcome!” He claims not to be “promoting Christianity or any religion” however, he also says, “If our NATION’S PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE would read, “One Nation Under Satan!”, then maybe “HellO” would deserve some measure of merit. But the fact is, that our Nation’s Pledge reads very clearly, “One Nation Under God!” (from an email to Rod C Stryker, reproduced on apatheticagnostic.com.)

So, obviously no intention to promote “Christianity or any religion” there.

But even considering the fact that some people might consider saying ‘hello’ to be a problem, why invent a new word? Just don’t say ‘hello’. There are plenty of alternatives including good day, greetings, salutations or hi. (Although perhaps Leo might consider using the word ‘hi’ as a greeting dangerous as it promotes illicit drug use.)

But we should be careful. If the heaveno campaign starts to generate any great following, it might not be long before we’re ordering oysters on the half sheaven, people living in Shelley, Western Australia will have to change all their street signs and anyone called Michelle will become the object of considerable ridicule.

If anyone is interested in reading even more about me and RealmShift (as if you could get enough!) there’s another interview at Lulu.com, where RealmShift is produced. It was an interview I did a few weeks ago and now they’ve posted it on their blog and in their monthly newsletter.

I was recently interviewed about all things RealmShift over at Dredlox.com, a Community News site with a focus on its family of members. If you’re interested to read the interview, click here.

Check out the Dredlox site anyway, and sign up if you like what you see. As site Admin Dredlox says, “I encourage people to use my site tools to promote your stuff, keep links in your signature, add to the links list, start topics about things you think need attention.”

I’m normally all flippant about… well, everything really. However, I read something in the paper this morning that struck me as being one of those absolutely simple, yet utterly relevant quotes.

Words can be very powerful things – it says so in the sidebar to the right and that guy should know. The person in question was speaking in relation to Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard visiting China next week. Christians are supporting an appeal from Falun Gong members for Howard to raise the issue of China’s human rights abuses, especially alleged human organ harvesting, during his visit. Obviously it’s a sticky topic and Howard is a real creep for ignoring the things he thinks might be too “political” to discuss. On the subject, Francis Milne, a former chairwoman of NSW Uniting Care, said something that resounds for Australia, but should be considered by every first world nation and citizen, replacing Australia with their own country.

“Our greatest fear is that Australia’s trade interests will overwhelm its compassion.”

Have you ever noticed those signs out the front of churches that try to lure people in with witty phrases? They annoy the hell out of me. They come in one of only two styles: the really bad pun or the holy superiority complex. This comes down, I suppose, to the basic fact that church leaders are not often known for their expertise in stand up, yet they are known for having a serious superiority complex. Of course, there are plenty of decent folk out there leading churches, but they are few and far between and don’t seem to be the ones writing these signs.

I plan to draw attention to some of the worst offenders here on The Word as often as I find them. They do seem to be very prevalent around Sydney. If you find a good one, send me a pic and I’ll put it on here. It’s word abuse of the worst kind really, so I’m not above mocking it.

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Wise Words

"Memory, prophecy and fantasy - the past, the future and the dreaming moment between - are all one country, living one immortal day.
To know that is Wisdom.
To use it is the Art." - The Great and Secret Show (Clive Barker)

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot." - Morpheus, The Sandman - Dream Country (Neil Gaiman)

"A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensly right words in a book or a newspaper the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt." - Mark Twain

"At the beginning there was the Word - at the end just the Cliche." - Stanislaw J Lec